#GIVEAWAY Happily Ever After Interview with Ruth A Casie

I'm so happy to welcome USA bestseller Ruth A Casie to the blog today. She is the author of  anthologies, multiple series in more than one genre and her series set in Havenport Rhode Island is really unique and she's going to tell us all about it.
Plus she's generously offering a #Giveaway.
Enjoy!

The Giveaway is for one e-book of
Happily Ever After Havenport #1 Open Internationally

Interview with Ruth

Ruth, welcome to The Reading Frenzy.
I heard from a little bird that you are a part of a group of authors who publish individually but all write series with stories set in the fictional town of Havenport Rhode Island.

Tell my readers how these series came to be?

First let me thank The Reading Frenzy for hosting me today.

Ah, your little birdie is right on. Get a cup of what-ever. This is bit of a long story.

About 2011-12 Emma, Nicole, Lita and I started a critique group. We helped each other work out plot points, tighten up our text, and beta read the finished story. We are a close group of friends.

In 2013 we decided to put together a short story anthology. We studied how to write a short story, it’s a different skill set than novel length stories. Later that year our first anthology was released, Timeless Keepsakes. We enjoyed the project so much we created our own publishing company, Timeless Scribes and wrote two anthologies a year.

As in many anthologies, our stories had a unifying factor. In our early anthologies: Timeless Keepsakes was based a keepsake, Timeless Escapes all the stories took place on an island we created, and Timeless Vows our characters all attended the same wedding.

Some characters made cameo appearances in another author’s story. We had a blast creating the stories and the interactions.

Fast forward to 2016. We decided to write longer stories, novelette length and created the small Rhode Island coastal town, Havenport based loosely on Newport, Rhode Island.

Are the different series connected in anyway?

Since we each write different subgenres, this year we decided to break apart the Havenport anthologies into individual books. Each of us would have our own series. While we write different romance subgenres the characters in our stories interact either directly, a mention, or through common places in town.

Candy Apples, the Havenport Herald gossip columnist begins each story with some insight or tart comment and closes the story with a shout about the other author’s series.

Also, our titles are in keeping with the theme. This release is the first time the stories are coming out as individual books however, we still have a unifying theme and our titles play to the theme.

Our theme for this release is love letters. The story titles are:

Heart of the Matter

Everything

Always

Rescuing the Ranger

Time After Time

Can you find the ‘secret code’?

Will you please tell my readers about your particular series set in Havenport?

For Havenport, I write romantic suspense. Taking a break from my medieval romance stories, I had no idea for a contemporary story line. I decided to use a personal experience.

For Happily Ever After I used a horrible review, a personal attack, I received for my first published book. I used some of the text in the opening of the story about an author who has fallen from literary stardom.

For How to Marry a Stuart Brother I used my brother and sister-in-law’s situation. After being married for ten years, they find out their marriage was never registered. While I happily went to their second wedding, my characters, who have drifted apart need to decide if they want to be married.

In my recent story, Heart of the Matter I used a love letter I found in my mother’s bible. It was dated after she married my Dad, but it wasn’t in his very distinctive doctor scrawl. The mystery behind the letter was begging for a story.

All my stories, historical and contemporary are about strong women and the men who deserve them. For my Havenport series someone is murdered and the only way to solve the crime is for the hero and heroine to work together.

 Ruth's Havenport novels

I understand that you recently made the USA Best Seller’s list in historical fiction. Congratulations! And you have a historical series featuring Pirates (my favorite historical characters) what is the biggest challenge living in the present day and writing historical fiction?

Historical stories necessitate an understanding of the historic period, the politics, the belief system, how people lived and worked. My historic stories include druid knights, magic, and spells.

Making these story elements believable both from the historic perspective and with my reader can be a fine line. Some of the challenges to find that line include:

·       Research - finding historical facts, knowing what to use and how to use it to make the story sound real

·       Understanding people of the past – knowing how they lived and thought in order to create believable situations, emotions, and interactions that are relatable for today’s reader

·       Voice – narration in a contemporary story is different than narration in a historical one.

·       World building - Historic stories require more world building. The challenge here is to write so your reader experiences the world.

The pirate series has an interesting historic perspective in that the pirate kingdom is based Kenneth McAlpin, the first king of Scotland in 843. Our pirate king is one of his sons. See, I can’t get away from research.

My pirate stories are part of the connected world of Pirates of Britannia created by Kathryn LeVeque and Eliza Knight. Writing stories in this world gave me the opportunity to tell the tales of secondary characters in my Stelton Legacy series. Shameless promotion: I have three more books for this world coming in 2020.

You have different series in different genres.
Do you enjoy creating one over the others or would that be like picking a favorite child?

I LOVE my two historic series. I enjoy writing these stories for all the challenges I mentioned above.

Then again, I thoroughly enjoy writing my contemporary stories. I based most of them on a personal experience which can be cathartic (like Happily Ever After) and that bad review or an homage (like Heart of the Matter) to my mother.

Rather than like picking your favorite child, it’s more like Dory from Nemo. I love what I’m working on at the time and usually when I write The End I’m looking forward to writing a new story in the other genre.

Ruth I see from your bio that you dance while you cook.
Okay I have to know why, spill the beans J

My resident hero, Paul and I are ballroom dancers. That’s a story in itself. We have three very active children who are now grown and on their own. But when they were home there was always someone who had to be dropped off or picked up from someplace. Paul and I never seemed to have any time for ourselves.

One evening after dinner he told me he signed us up for ballroom dancing classes given through the adult education program in our town. He said at least he would have his arms around me for two hours once a week without any interruptions. Yes, that is swoon-worthy.

We kept up lesson from time to time. Now when I cook and I have music playing, you will find me waltzing across the kitchen, practicing my Cuban motion for Latin dancing, or my favorite rhumba-ing from the fridge to the stove!

Thank you for not asking me about my Suduko book in the bathroom! (check out her bio for this little tidbit)

PS: Regarding the secret code in the book titles – the first letter of each title spells out HEART.

Thank you so much for answering my questions Ruth, good luck with all your writing!

 Anthologies written with her Havenport author group

Visit The Havenport Romance Facebook Page for all the latest news on Havenport
https://www.facebook.com/HavenportRomance/

Read an excerpt of Ruth's Latest Havenport Novel

Heart of the Matter just released 2-11-2020

Heart of the Matter Excerpt

Ina’s not here, but he is.” Ryan motioned out the window to a gentleman standing by the family cemetery. “Which is why I’m still here. He didn’t say much, just asked to speak to Cookie. I told him he missed the funeral and let him go to the cemetery.”

“Who is he?” Addy asked, looking out the window and scrutinizing the man.

“I wish I knew. One of Cookie’s more handsome and younger patients, perhaps? I’ll stay until he leaves.”

“No. You go on. I’ll thank him for his condolences.”

Ryan left. Addy headed for the cemetery. From her vantage point coming down the patio steps and across the lawn, the man appeared respectful and intriguing. By the time she reached the cemetery, her pace slowed and her bluster cooled. Maybe she should have asked Ryan to stay. Too late now. Besides, he piqued her curiosity. She waited at the gate to give him time alone with his thoughts, and to study him.

He appeared out of place, the way he held his six-foot frame with his hands clasped in front, his head bowed. His dark brown hair ruffled by the breeze coming off the cove reminded her of rich soil, almost black in the shadows. The angles of his face were pleasant to look at and familiar, but she couldn’t place him. He raised his head. A soft gasp escaped her as their eyes met. His were a beautiful, compelling gray, gentle and understanding.

“I’m Addison Moore. Can I help you?” She came through the gate toward him.

“I’m too late.” The man examined her face as if searching for an answer, then lowered his head.

“Did you know my grandmother?” Addy had an urge to put her arms around him, console him. She had similar urges dealing with her grandmother’s patients and steeled herself to remain neutral.

“I have a letter to give to Cookie. I hoped to meet her.”

“A letter?” Her fascination with the handsome stranger evaporated into cold facts. Who was he and what did he want?

“No. I mean yes, sort of.” The man shook his head. “Let me start over. My great-uncle gave me a picture before he passed away with a message to Cookie on the back. Since I had a meeting in Newport and Havenport is so close, I thought I would hand deliver a photo.”

He ran his hand through his hair and looked at her.

“My uncle planned to send the letter, but never did. I thought…” He laughed nervously and handed her the envelope. “It sounded like a good plan at the time. This is the only clue I had, his note on the envelope, Cookie, Havenport, RI.”

She took the envelope and with one glance recognized the doctor scrawl. With butterflies in her stomach and her head buzzing with questions, Cookie’s voice echoed in her head. Destiny.    

About Ruth:

Storyteller - Blogger - Dreamer - Creative Thinker - Good Sport - Teammate

You might be wondering what I’m about. Sit back and let me tell you.

I’m happiest when I’m telling stories either chatting with a group of friends or writing them down. I love to put my hero and heroine in tough situations and dare them to work it out—together, always together. They haven’t disappointed me. Oh, they complain but in the end their love and relationships are stronger than ever.

I’ve been filling up my days and staying busy. While I keep tormenting my druid knight, I’m outlining a new series. The working title is the River of Time. It’s about an elite technology security officer, whose job is to eliminate time travelers, but he falls in love with a time traveling art appraiser and has to choose between his duty and his one chance for a timeless love. I love this story line because it lets me stretch my contemporary voice while working in historic time periods. I think this is the best of both worlds.

I’d love to hear from you. Catch me on my blog, RuthACasie.blogspot.com, on Twitter at @RuthACasie, you can drop me a line at Ruth@RuthACasie.com or visit me on FaceBook at RuthACasie.

Ruth's Website-https://ruthacasie.com/index.html

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Bins